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With many top categories too close to call, THR's theater critic makes his picks for this year's top honors.

An awards show with actual suspense? That's the uncommon prospect for the 67th annual Tony Awards on June 9, for which nearly all of the top categories are at least two-horse races. Unlike past years, when such front-runners as Billy Elliot, The Book of Mormon and Once went into the ceremony with victories pretty much preordained, predictions remain up in the air until final votes are received June 7.

For every likely winner, such as the wildly imaginative British musical adaptation of Roald Dahl's Matilda, about a 5-year-old genius with a headmistress from hell, there's an equal favorite like the crowd-pleasing Kinky Boots, in which a struggling shoe factory escapes bankruptcy by carving a niche making thigh-highs for drag queens.

That could mean a generous spread among key prizes. Matilda likely will snag top honors for best musical, but neophyte Broadway composer Cyndi Lauper appears to have the edge for best original score for Kinky Boots.

But the directors of those shows face tough competition from Diane Paulus, whose hyperkinetic circus-themed reinterpretation of Pippin seems the production to beat for best musical revival. Given that her productions of Hair and Porgy and Bess both took home that award, pundits generally feel it's Paulus' time to land the trophy for direction of a musical.

With more than one legitimate contender in nearly every race, a broad trophy sweep seems unlikely among plays or musicals.

Insiders are forecasting that beloved Broadway veteran Christopher Durang will win his first Tony for his witty contemporary Chekhov riff Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. But others are placing bets on the late Nora Ephron's love letter to scrappy New York tabloid journalism, Lucky Guy.

That play has a lead actor front-runner in Tom Hanks, even if his assured Broadway debut is no match for the revelatory spin his closest competitor, Tracy Letts, put on the role of henpecked academic George in the knockout revival of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Given so many wide-open fields, educated guesses about this year's awards are more about guesswork than education. But here are The Hollywood Reporter's picks for what will win -- and should win -- in the top Tony categories.